Introduction

The general capabilities play a significant role in the Australian Curriculum in equipping young Australians to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century.

In the Australian Curriculum, capability encompasses knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions. Students develop capability when they apply knowledge and skills confidently, effectively and appropriately in complex and changing circumstances, in their learning at school and in their lives outside school.

The Australian Curriculum includes seven general capabilities, as shown in the figure below.

General capabilities in the Australian Curriculum

In the Australian Curriculum, the general capabilities are addressed through the content of the learning areas. General capabilities are identified where they are developed or applied in the content descriptions. They are also identified where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning via the content elaborations, which are provided to give teachers ideas about how they might teach the content. Icons are used to indicate where general capabilities have been identified in learning area content descriptions and elaborations.

Teachers are expected to teach and assess general capabilities to the extent that they are incorporated within learning area content. State and territory education authorities will determine if and how student learning of the general capabilities is to be further assessed or reported.

Wisdom

The Tasmanian Good News for Living Religious Education Curriculum has an eighth general capability: Wisdom.